With the formal abolition of the Tokugawa Shogunate on January 3, 1868, there was created in Japan a governmental void which was not filled finally and satisfactorily until 1889. The search of Japanese leaders for a satisfactory government structure for the new state was thus one of long duration. It did not begin seriously until the successful outcome of the military struggle with the Tokugawa forces in the early months of 1868 seemed assured.

He westernization and reformation of Japan in the nineteenth century were motivated in large measure by a desire to escape the fate of Asian nations that had failed to make a thorough renovation. The example of China in particular seemed to prove the aggressive nature of European imperialism and the necessity for speedy and drastic changes. Japan's modernization, however, was not motivated by a defense mentality alone. There was, rather, a defense-in-depth concept whereby a renovated Japanese nation should, at the very least, join and, if possible, lead other Asian countries in resistance to the West. This awareness of community with Asia was a constant factor in Japanese politics during the Meiji period. The leaders of the liberal-democratic movement emphasized this theme most strongly; they sought from the first to apply their ideas abroad. They condemned their government's apparent indifference to Asian affairs and its anxiety to please the West. The liberals found a more ready response to such charges than they did to their proposals for changes at home, and so they tended to use them more and more. When this nationalist emphasis is considered in conjunction with the lack of a program of domestic and economic reform, the total effect of the liberal-democratic movement can be considered as tending toward militarism and aggression as often as it did toward peace and democracy.

The period of Japan's greatest promise, the hopeful 1920's when dim flashes of political liberalism were sometimes discernible, was also the “golden era” of the Kenseikai. The picture of those eventful years would be incomplete if the image of this political party, both in and out of office, did not appear on at least one corner of the canvas. Occasionally displaying promise of strength but generally exhibiting its actual impotence, the Kenseikai nevertheless played a role of some significance to developments in Japan. It is the purpose of this essay to examine briefly some of the forces at work within the party which had their effect upon that role. This task calls for an investigation of the political inheritance of the Kenseikai, the circumstances surrounding its birth, the elements that went into its composition, the techniques used by some factions to consolidate their strength, and the devices utilized by competing groups to dislodge from power those in control of the organization.

The preceding articles deal with disparate topics; yet they have in common an underlying theme. They are all concerned, either implicitly or explicitly, with some aspect of political power, the central problem of political science.

Until the middle of the nineteenth century, when internal disorder and the impact of Western influences began to work striking changes in the structure of Chinese governmental finance, the revenue of the Ch'ing dynasty may be divided into five main categories. The first and most important was the land tax, which was imposed on most agricultural land throughout the empire and provided the major portion of the funds with which the routine administrative operations of both the central and provincial governments were financed. The second, far smaller in amount than the first, was the grain tribute, which was imposed like the land tax on agricultural land but was levied only in certain areas and was devoted normally to the feeding of the official population of Peking, including the metropolitan garrison, the court, and the metropolitan bureaucracy. The third was the governmental monopoly of the production and distribution of salt. The fourth and fifth categories were respectively the regular (or “native”) customs and certain miscellaneous indirect taxes.

The Nō, Japan's first great dramatic form, was fully developed by two great performers, Kannami (1333–1384) and his son Zeami (1363–1443), in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, the heart of the Muromachi period. The Nō remained one of Japan's primary dramatic forms, strongly influencing all later forms of Japanese drama. The texts of the Nō plays, as a new genre of literature, deeply influenced Japan's subsequent literature.